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Friday, August 14, 2015

Uber Reduces Drunk Driver Deaths

The government, non-profits, and even insurance companies have been trying to do this for years: reduce the number of drunk driver deaths. Leave it to a startup, albeit a big one which has been around for a few years, to solve the problem. And that startup is Uber (although Lyft may solve the same problem, but I haven't seen any studies on it.

A recent independent study done by researchers at Temple University Fox School of Business in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, discovered that with the entry of Uber into markets in California between 2009 and 2013, findings suggest a significant drop in the rate of alcohol related motor vehicle homicides during that time. Drunk driving deaths dropped 3.6% to 5.6% in 14 counties in California.

There was actually a previous study conducted by Uber and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, also known as MADD, which showed similar findings, but the one from Temple University was an independent study.

It goes to show you that sometimes creating a successful startup has unintended but very positive consequences.

DeLorean "time machine" provided by Uber





Picture created by Ed g2s via Wikipedia

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Checkout SMARTCAMP 2015 for Startups and Win $25,000

Have you heard of SMARTCAMP 2015? If not, you should check it out. You could win $25,000 plus acceptance into the 12-week, LAUNCH Incubator.

This is a startup competition taking place in 30 cities, with IBM and LAUNCH as the hosts. The cities include:

Auckland
Austin
Bangalore
Boston
Cairo
Casablanca
Chicago
Istanbul
Johannesburg
London
Los Angeles
Melbourne
Mexico City
Montevideo
Mumbai
Nairobi
New Delhi
New York
Raleigh
Sao Paulo
San Francisco
Silicon Valley
Singapore
Tokyo
Toronto

The finalists will get to meet top Silicon Valley investors in San Francisco at the SCALE Conference which will be held on October 13th and 14th. They will return to the LAUNCH festival held March 2nd through the 4th, next year.

Need an application? Go to the following link: